Star Townsville sprinter on trial for Brisbane trip

By Glenn Davis

North Queensland flying machine Roweiner’s Dance will be on trial for a trip to Brisbane during the summer when the gelding makes his comeback at Townsville’s Cluden Park on Friday.

Roweiner’s Dance – an Isabella Teh mount - makes his return following a three-month break in the QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap over 1000 metres.

Trainer Bill Kenning believes Roweiner’s Dance is already looking for ground and will use blinkers on the gelding to help sharpen him up for his first-up assignment.

“He’s come back in good order but he’s looking for further, so I’m putting blinkers on him first-up then I’ll take them off,” Kenning said.

“He’s bred to run 2400 metres and it’s amazed me what he’s done as a two-year-old over shorter trips.

“He’s got a bit of weight so I’m putting Isabella on to take two kilos off him.”

Kenning says Roweiner’s Dance has a limited future in North Queensland and believes he’ll end up racing in Brisbane permanently.

“I think 1400 to 1600 metres will be his best distance but his mother won up to 2200 metres so he’ll definitely run further,” Kenning said.

“It’ll soon get hot up here and he’s going to get weighted out of races up this way, so I’m thinking of sending him south to a trainer like Lindsay Hatch."

Roweiner’s Dance hasn’t raced since finishing third to the Garnett Taylor-trained Bold Comic in the $100,000 QTIS 2YO Classic over 1200 metres at Townsville in June.

“He got taken on in front that day but it was a great run,” Kenning said.

“The form has stacked up as Shamedy who beat him a nose for second has since gone to Brisbane to win.”

Roweiner’s Dance stunned racegoers with a record-breaking victory when he won for the sixth time in his first eight starts at Townsville on May 5.

The home-bred won by almost eight lengths and stopped the clock for the 1000 metres trip at 55.17 seconds, which smashed a 24-year-old track record.

The son of Sidestep was bred by Kenning who trained his mother Roweiner.

“We won six races with his mother and she won up to 2200 metres,” Kenning said.

Kenning has a small team of four horses in work.

He was a popular jockey when he rode around South East Queensland before his career in the saddle was cut short after badly breaking a leg in a race fall.

"I won the Townsville and Rockhampton Cups when I was riding but I got busted-up fairly badly in a fall," Kenning said.